<VV> was HELP, was garage lighting info, was Permitting

[Vairtec Corporation]

My house has a newer attached 2-car garage and a much older detached 
3-car garage.  The 3-car garage houses the Corvairs (and the lawn 
tractor and the patio furniture et al) and the 2-car garage houses our 
modern cars and is the place where I work on Corvairs.  I do minor work 
only.

When a friend in my local Corvair club was moving, he dropped off his 
vehicle scissors lift for me to keep in my garage while he set up his 
new garage at his new place.  We rolled it into my side of the 2-car garage.

Naturally, I sought to use it during this time.  Electrically powered 
and hydraulically operated, you plug it in to an ordinary 110v outlet.  
The first time I hit the switch, the house went dark.  (Cue annoyed wife 
at this point.)

I knew that our electric service was marginal but now I needed to know 
how marginal and what would be necessary to fix it.  The power came from 
the street via overhead wires into that separate 3-car garage, then was 
subbed off that into the house.  With those overhead wires passing 
through trees, every time the wind blew the lights flickered.  The panel 
in the detached garage looked like it was installed by Thomas Edison 
personally.  It was time for a major change.

A trench was dug from the house to the street, and all new service was 
put in that trench, to a new meter and new box at the house. Then we 
subbed the separate garage from that, also underground. While we were at 
it, we added additional 110 outlets and added new 220 outlets in the 
attached garage.  We added heat and A/C to the attached garage and to 
the office above it.  Being in an area with comprehensive building codes 
and inspections, all the necessary permitting was obtained and my 
participation was limited to moving dirt and writing checks.

When the job was all done, the lights no longer flickered in a breeze 
and I could hit the switch on that lift without disturbing my wife.

At which point my friend's new garage was ready and he wanted his lift 
back...